Much of Travis Steele’s first season at Xavier did not go well. A tough start to the season, highlighted by the Musketeers’ first ever trip to the Maui Invitational, foreshadowed struggles until February.
While losing to DePaul at home was undoubtedly the lowest point thus of the Steele era thus far, Xavier’s 71-56 loss at Missouri a week before Christmas was not a whole lot better. The game was not nearly as close as the score indicated, as Missouri took a double-digit lead with seven minutes to go in the first half and the Musketeers were unable to shrink that lead back into single digits the rest of the way.